6.04.2007

Jyotir Linga Ujjain(Avanti) - Mahakala Shiva

Ujjain, a land of mystery and secrecy held together by a small little town, is considered to be one of the holiest shrines in India. Born within itself, a swayambhuva linga and not man made, this Linga is powerful to derive its own energy and has not been induced by mantra shakti, unlike other Lingas.

The interesting part of this temple is that it is multi-storeyed and the actual Jyotir Linga is underground. The beauty of it is that one walks through dark passages lit with brass lamps to find the Lord sunken within the earth, still alive and brimming with overpowering presence.

What a presence! To think that it actually spreads to the Linga above and makes the entire temple more potent. The presence of the Lord is far more intense here. The shikhara of this temple towers above enveloping Mahakaleshwar, a form of Dakshinamurthi Shiva Himself. Parvati, Ganesha and Karthikeya also reside within these walls.

The idol of Omkareshwar Shiva is placed above Mahakaleshwar Shiva who resides in the lower chamber. A additional floor as been attributed to Nagchandreswar, who is worshipped by devotees only on Nagpanchami day.

A silent Linga, Mahakaleswar Shiva and Omkareshwar, all reside together here. The myth goes as follows. Ujjain, previously known as Avanti was located on the banks of the sacred river Shipra. In this little town lived a brahmin named Vedhapriya who had four sons. Close to Avanti was a mountain kingdom called Ratnamala which was ruled by a demon King called Dushanan. Dushanan has done immense worship to Brahma and had acquired a lot of power and was now almost invincible. He had grown to be very proud and began to illtreat his people and subjects. Dushanan finally invaded Avanti and began to rule it with tyrany. A lot of unhappy people went to Vedhapriya to seek his help.

Vedhapriya at that time was performing Shiva puja with his four sons. When the people came to their house, Vedhapriya's eldest son Devapriya consoled them saying they were not strong enough to face the fierce demon. They told them to leave it in Lord Shiva's hands and continued to worship the Lord. King Dushanan came to know this and decided to kill Vedhapriya and destroy all the Lingas they were worshipping. He came upon the pit from which mud was traditionally taken to make the Lingas for centuries. As he advanced with his army, Lord Shiva rose out of the pit as a column of fire in Jyotir swarupa form and burnt King Dushana and his entire army in one blow.

All the people worshipped this form of the Lord and named Him Mahakala Jyotir Linga, the protector of the Universe.

23 comments:

JC Joshi
said...

A nice post! Thanks!

‘Brahmins’, as per definition, are those who apparently realize the ‘Truth’ or become aware of human life also to be a part of a ‘leela’ or drama (thus Shakespeare also could be so considered!) created through ‘Maya’ or illusion by the one and only formless, or ‘nirakar’, Supreme Creator who came to be represented symbolically through ‘shivalingas’ made from different materials and worshipped at homes, or in temples, big or small. They, apparently for the sake of consumption of ‘common man’, conveyed the truth of Mahakal Shiva the Formless as the controller of time and related ‘natural’ events with humans also as an integrated part of ‘Nature’, through mythological stories in the past.

The myth presented here by Kavitha is another version related with Ravana or ‘Dushanan’ the ten headed ‘mayavi rakshasha’ or a powerful demon, that is, selfish and therefore considered as bad administrator, who ‘naturally’ appear, from time to time at intervals and finally disappear either ‘naturally’, as in this version, or believably through some selfless agency, or ‘devta’, in human form of, say, a Lord Rama-like king whose story is much more popular in north India.

Continuing, the ‘ancient Hindu’ concept of Formless Creator, who believably used sound energy for creation of the entire infinite physical universe, is also conveyed through its name as ‘Nadbindu’, believably ‘a point source of infinite sound energy’, symbolically represented by numeral ‘3’ (to reflect its three aspects: of creation, sustenance, and transformation of physical forms) and phonetically by ‘OM’. He, therefore, is also called as ‘Onkareshwar’, a name that is also associated with the one and only ‘Mahakal Shiva’, the formless controller of apparent time, and natural events related with appearance and disappearance of physical forms during cycles of Satyuga to Kaliyuga, called a Mahayuga.

Human efficiency believably reduces from 100% to 0% in one cycle of four stages with the passage of apparent time that apparently got generated through the relative motions of earth-moon and sun at a certain stage in the life of the unending ‘Swayambhu’, that is the one who is unborn - being related with zero time and space - and who believably appeared on His Own. The duration of one cycle is believed to be 4.32 million years and during one day in the life of Brahma, there believably take place over 1000 such cycles (perhaps 1080, that is, 360x3; also reflected proportionately in ritual use of 108 beads in a garland made from ‘Rudraksha’ or ‘Shiva’s eyes’) to cover the entire 360 degrees of space.

As we have seen earlier also elsewhere, Brahma in the ‘Hindu’ mythological stories in code words represents our Sun as the creative aspect of Mahashiva, who in physical form is represented through our Solar system with Sun’s essence believably housed in the middle of the belly in the human form at the ‘Solar plexus’ or the ‘Manipurka Bandha’ that is ‘lock’.

The aspect of sustenance of the creation - over various durations ranging from zero to infinity – is believed to be placed under the charge of Formless Vishnu/ Shiva represented in physical form through the super gravitational force or Black Hole that is Krishna that exists at the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and also within each Heavenly Body/ animal forms.

The aspect of destruction, for the sake of transformation, is believably under the charge of Shiva-Parvati that is Mahesh represented by our planet Earth-Moon.

As we have seen earlier also, the human form is believed to be created as ‘a model of the universe’, or ‘image of God’, with different permutations and combinations of essences of the members of our solar system placed at different levels, each playing an important role to reflect the grand variety that apparently exists in ‘Nature’ through eternity through human actions.

The use of words, such as, “Rome was not built in a day,” “Herculean task,” “Bhagirathi prayas,” that is valiant effort made by Bhagirath, and so on, indicate the need for appreciation by an average human of the effort that would have gone into the creation of the infinite universe by the Formless, Mahakal Shiva, although in no time or instantaneously, but to review just the actions performed by unending Brahma in a day, through innumerable eyes of Bhootnath Shiva the Lord of the Past, it believably takes over 4 billion years!

In the ‘present’, the ‘Truth’ is apparently being researched by ‘scientists’ or ‘specialists’, in different fields that are apparently multiplying rapidly with the passage of time.

It is perhaps not difficult to visualize with the help of the ‘ancient Hindu’ concept of time moving backwards such that events appear to reflect deterioration in general human efficiency, of course, with exceptions on account of the believable range incorporated in the Master Plan, the apparently chaotic situation in the beginning of Kaliyuga when the evolutionary processes had just begun.

Thus it is not surprising that one finds ‘science’ today to be at a very rudimentary stage compared to ‘perfection’ or all round development achieved by Shiva/ planet Earth at the end of Satyuga, in the long lost past…however, it is the 'tiny grains of sand and te little drops of water' that make the beautiful earth as we know it today. And, we can perhaps relax that we are in the hands of Mother Earth!

Kavitha, perhaps you are aware of an online news emanating from Dehradu on 20th May that read, “Have cracks appeared on the snow-capped Neelkanth mountain, a shining pyramid of white crystals, overlooking the famous Badrinath temple in Uttarakhand? It, therefore, urging urgent action by the concerned authorities.

And The Hindu on the web site intimated dated the 24th May that the Geological Survey of India (GSI) would study satellite imageries of Neelkanth peak, nestling in Garhwal hills, to find out whether some cracks have appeared on the mountain's top. And that the move came in the wake of unsuccessful attempts by GSI scientists to conduct an aerial survey of the 20,640 feet high mountain in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand due to bad weather.

Also, on India TV, while covering the said peak and Temple, it was recently reported that the tourist rush to Badrinath Temple had increased three-fold on account of the news and that even the Union Rail Minister, Lalu Yadv visited the Temple with his family.

The reported crack in Neelkantha, believably related with the blue throat of Shiva on account of poison held in it, perhaps bears some mystical importance in view of the awareness created by the media for some time about its close proximity to earth of planet Saturn that is associated with ‘mayavi west’, blue colour and Iron & steel, and the recent disturbance in west India, in Punjab (Akali Sikhs Vs Dera Sacha Sauda Guru), Rajasthan (Gujjar Vs Meena), etc. besides disturbances created by Shiv sainiks, Bajrang Dal etc. from time to time, that is even by ‘Hindus’ who till recent times were believed to be ‘tolerant’.

This has reference to Attack on academic freedom by Shri Sambuddha Sen, Reader, Deptt. Of English, DU (June 6).

The problem with Indians, and particularly the ‘born Hindus’, today is that nobody seems to have either been made aware of or, themselves, have paused (of course because of innumerable forces that make them see only outwards) to wonder about ‘Mahakal Shiva’ the believable controller of time, who is also called ‘Bhootnath’ that is the Lord of the Past who is believably reviewing through His innumerable temporary eyes His story (History) from Satyuga, the age of all round ‘perfection’, down to Kaliyuga, the age of poorest human efficiency, through Tretayuga and Dwaperyuga also, i.e., a set of four Yugas forming a Mahayuga, while covering the entire 360 degrees of space in 1080 such cycles over a period of over 4 billion years that represents actions performed by Brahma just in a day in His unending life, and since time immemorial!

Perhaps the most surprising part of ‘creation’ that sounds unbelievable to us today is that the ancient Yogis believably realized all about Mahakal/ Time and the duration of different Yugas etc. while seeking the ‘Truth’ within their own body - sitting detached in some Himalayan cave far away from normal human habitation doing ‘Tapasya’ that is literally baking (brick-like) in the sun!

This stage in a normal human life came to be known as ‘sanyas’ and became an accepted practice by all Hindus towards their fag-end of life when an individual normally withdrew to the isolation of the Himalayas/ Ashrams.

It is however obvious that during their earlier normal stages of life, that is, childhood the age of learning; as a householder, growing in family size; and settling their off-springs etc. before they could retire for ‘sanyas’, in all these stages, they would have come across many questions on the natural existence of opposites in life, viz. good/ bad, right/ wrong and so on. Thus, ‘sanyas’, the forced spare time to pause, which the day-to-day activities didn’t permit them earlier, allowed them to receive answers to such questions within their own heads by in-depth analysis, the exercise which apparently got reflected in the form of some ‘miracle’ - believably related with the ‘spiritual’ - being performed by them, as stories of some yogi walking on surface of water, and so on, became known to the masses.

The information received thus in the past was disseminated to all and sundry when the Yogis, as per the prevalent practice in the past, gathered together at the banks of Ganga at Kashi/ Sangam near Prayag/ at Haridwar and so on, perhaps as part of the Master Plan.

Similarly, in the present such 'miracles' are apparently being reported from the 'west' through the media through believably the inferior 'material' means, compared to the 'spiritual' in the east in hte past, of course, on account of 'Time'!

Kavitha, I give below another reaction to the newspaper editorial despite apparent silence!

This refers to Damage Control – Culprits must pay for property destruction in riots (June 7).

i might sound ‘eccentric’ when i say that the editorial perhaps is a superficial assessment of ‘natural justice system’, attributed by the ‘wise’ ancients to ‘Time’.

Media-persons today, obviously, like horses with blinkers (perhaps as an integrated component of the natural design though!), believe they are the owners of the systems of communication to the masses! Similar thoughts apply to other humans in other fields of activity also – that they are the Masters of ‘Nature’! The ‘Truth’ might however be exactly reverse of it, that is, man is a slave of ‘Mahakal’ that is the Controller of Time - as realized by the ‘wiser’ ancients!

The thought of ‘property destruction in riots’ and ‘culprits must pay for the damage’, could be a reflection of the Creator’s thought in view of the damage that man, as a ‘caretaker’, hired ‘purely temporarily’, due to his inability to realize his duties has caused, (with man as the believable cause of ‘global warming’), to EARTH the real owner of all the properties one perceives in the entire universe – as already understood and communicated by our ‘wise’ ancestors, they themselves realized as ‘images’ of the Formless three-in-one Creator Himself who is responsible for all creation, their sustenance and destruction for His Own purpose! And, they laid stress on that lest we forget that it has five elements that go into the formation of each and every form created from sound energy, or ‘panchatatva’, that is, SKY, EARTH, FIRE, AIR & WATER, at its disposal for doing the needful. They called these elements, for these function since time immemorial, also as ‘panchabhootas’ functioning under the supervision of the Creator, also called ‘Bhootnath’ the Lord of the Past…

For those who didn’t know either Sanskrit, or even other advanced European languages, He communicated through St. Matthew - in English in the New Testament - the realization of natural justice system in the saying, as a typical example, “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you (ye?) again…etc.” Thus, responsibility was realized to rest with each and every individual, and particularly on the ‘Boss’, the head of the system (for, uneasy used to lay the head that wore the crown once upon a time)!

Average human vision perhaps could be said to be ‘blinkered’. Everyone might come out with his/ her own version of an event, or might even remain dormant or indifferent.

Let’s take the simple example of preparing tea. If you were to ask one to describe the process, you are normally likely to get to hear: Take (the measured amount of) water in a metallic vessel (as per the number of persons that are required to be served). Place it on a (properly lighted) gas oven and bring the water to boil. Add tea leaves (according to some measure prescribed for that quality of tea or based on your experience) and cover the vessel with a lid for some time (as prescribed or based on experience). Strain and pour into different cups. Add milk and sugar according to taste - and serve.

But you aren’t likely to generally hear that the process of boiling of water (after in-depth observation and analysis that the resultant convection current that is set up) conveys similarly the behavior of, say, 'Siberian Cranes' in the present - (and perhaps also the likely movement of nomads in the past) – that is, when it gets too hot in India they fly away to cooler Siberia. And, when it becomes too cold there they return to India! They breed in India and yet are called Siberian!

And, perhaps only an ancient Astrologer, who realized man as a model of the universe, might have related the hot flame with our Sun at one extreme of the Solar system and cold planet Saturn at the other extreme to explain the apparent movement of humans although settled on earth - in the middle – to similarly, like a pendulum, perform movement from residence to place of work etc after sunrise, and back home again in the evening when it is cooler near sunset!

As we have seen elsewhere too, in the Hindu Mythological stories the original abode of ‘Ardhanarishwar Shiva’ the androgynous God or Mahakal Shiva is indicated at Kashi that is the present day Varanasi, located at Longitude 83 degree East - and in the present the IST is related with 82.5 degree east longitude.

It is therefore interesting that one of the three east flowing rivers in India, the 1,289 kilometer long River Narmada, rises in the summit of Amarkantaka hills in the state of Madhya Pradesh near about 82 degree east longitude and after passing through the 'Marble Rocks' at Jabalpur it enters the Narmada Valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges. Pursuing a direct westerly course to the Gulf of Khambhat it drains into the Arabian Sea in the Bharuch District of Gujarat.

In view of the above, it is interesting to see that the holy River Narmada, believably descended on earth on the order of Lord Shiva and forming the traditional boundary between North India and South India, virtually provides a link between the three Jyotirlingas: Omkareshwar at its eastern end, Mahakaleshwar in the middle and Somnath at the western end.

As indicated above, as per mythological belief, Shiva ordered River Narmada to descend from the ‘sky’. The stories similarly indicate River Ganga to have descended from the moon - with Shiva, that is, earth receiving it directly on His locks (perhaps pointing to the Himalayan forest) to revive the 60,000 sons of King Sagar (literally, the sea) that were turned into ashes by Sage Kapila. Perhaps thus indicating evaporation of seawater due to ‘Shiva opening His third-eye’ to turn legendary ‘Kamdeva’ to ashes, that is opening in the ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere. Lord Rama also, similarly, requested Lakshamana (the human form of earth/ Shiva in Tretayuga) to hand him over the arrow that would dry up the seawater, for the in-charge of sea, Varun, didn’t provide passage to the monkey army of Sugriva to cross over to the island of Lanka despite Rama’s prayers over a few days!

The above stories thus explain the water cycle etc. to the laypersons that is understood by the ‘scientists’ today as the function of heating up of earth, and also seawater, that apparently produces higher tides in the seas because of the combined effect of sun and moon, compared to that produced by sun alone, and apparently unable to reach at the cause. The ancients expressed these as functions of Shiva & Parvati, that is, Earth-Moon as the body and soul of Ardhanarishwar Shiva, which is also communicated through jyotirlinga Somnath, and also associated with ‘Krishna the light of the thousand suns’ who eventually ruled from Dwarka. He believably came to the assistance of Draupadi, a model of moon in human form in Dwaperyuga, whenever she needed it, even when He wasn’t physically anywhere near her, for example when He, through remote control, lengthened her sari, or when He filled up the belly of Sage Durvasa, and also those of his army of disciples when they had gone for bath, just in their absence consuming Himself a grain of cooked rice that was earlier prepared by Draupadi for the Pandavas!

The mythological stories indicate close relationship between the mystical characters of Draupadi that is Moon and ‘Krishna the light of the thousand suns’ or centre of our Milky Way galaxy whose supreme form is indirectly indicated in the Gita as our planet earth that is Shiva!

Another brief not that I prepared in reply to Hon. Dalai Lama's view forwarded by a friend.

Average human vision perhaps could be said to be ‘blinkered’. Everyone might come out with his own version of an event, which one might find very interesting and logical too; or one might even remain dormant or indifferent.

It is perhaps ‘history’ that Buddhism was born at the end of the ‘Vedic era’ towards the end of 6th century BC. However, it is also known as the truth that planet earth is believably in existence, spinning around its own axis and revolving in its orbit around the sun while also making the moon to go around it, for over 4 billion years. It must therefore have been witness to lot more of drama of animal forms that it has apparently been supporting over billions of years, for, the ordinary bacterium first appeared on the stage around 3.5 billion years ago while man apparently landed here only a few million years ago!

Basic belief of Sanatan Dharma that is a practice with a belief that it be ideally carried forth by ‘Hindus’ in its original form since time immemorial is that the ‘Creator’ is a ‘perfect being’ (represented by Shiva in human form at the beginning of Satyuga as we humans believably view time moving backwards, that is from the stage of ‘perfection’ to ‘imperfection’), but unending or immortal ‘nirakar’ or formless, [say, just as today we apparently realize, as the ‘Truth’, the presence of different indestructible though transformable energy forms that are associated with material forms, viz. heat, light, sound, electricity, magnetism etc]. And, that the sarvagunasampanna or perfect Nirakar Brahma is the root cause of the ‘Maya’ that is illusion of the infinite physical forms in the apparent universe created by it for its own purpose.

Thus according to Vedanta, in the overall make-believe universe, human being was understood to be a multi-purpose instrument designed to reflect the different aspects of the Creator itself from zero to infinity that is from imperfection at the beginning of a certain apparent time, called Kaliyuga, and overall perfection covering the entire 360 degrees of space achieved after Bhagirathi prayas at another point of apparent time in four different stages, called Dwaperyuga, Tretayuga and Satyuga, in the order the evolutionary processes happened.

The above phenomenon for laypersons is indicated in the Hindu Mythological stories too of, say, ‘the churning of the Milky Ocean’, under the supervision of Brihaspati that is Jupiter, with the help of ‘Mandara Hill’ supported on the hard back of Lord Vishnu in the form of an amphibian, Tortoise, His second reincarnation or more evolved form after Fish as the first, by selfless (devtas that is angels) as well as selfish (rakshashas that is demons) people using celestial serpent Vasuki for churning.

Maybe, one can visualize the above story to be related with spinning as well as revolution of planet earth as one of the members of the solar system as understood by astronomers today, but not as the real hero of the drama, the centre of the universe, as it believably came to be realized by the ancient Yogis and thus represented by the ancient Hindu astronomers also, till the advent of Christian Era, towards the fag-end of Kaliyuga and obviously with the Hindu Philosophy in mind the apparent chaos, for ‘the churning still continues’ but time reflects the period when Vishnu was yet to evolve and appear as Kurmavatar and all animal forms, including man, are thus apparently on the verge of obsolescence!

It is known in the present that two normal faults, known as the Narmada North fault and Narmada South fault run parallel to the Narmada river's course and mark the boundary between the Narmada block and the Vindhya and Satpura blocks.

The mythologicsal stories indicate that the Vindhyas and believably the oldest River, Narmada, existed even when India was known as an island Jambudweep before the appearance of the Himalayan range from under the sea-bed in its North.

According to a legend, Narmada was formed from the sweat of Shiva in meditation, which indicates that volcanic activities, emergence of hot water geysers from underground and resultant formation of thermal pools would have continued in the initial stages in this region also, like these can be seen in the present in certain regions of the relatively younger Himalayas too.

The 965km long River Chambal (one of the tributaries of River Yamuna, which is popularly associated with Krishna) is the largest and most important river of western Madhya Pradesh. And, the 193 km long River Shipra, one of River Chambal’s tributaries, both, like Narmada, originate in the Vindhyas and also pass through the holy city of Ujjain located on the Tropic of Cancer and where the Mahakal Temple is located on the banks of River Shipra. Thus Ujjain could be realized as the central point for calculation of Indian time at a certain point of time in the past. And, also located on the banks of the Shipra is Sage Sandipani’s Ashram, or hermitage, where Neelamber Krishna (related with blue colour, as that of Neelkantha Shiva's throat), Lord Vishnu’s eighth incarnation, had believably studied.

Kavitha, Even today the people find it dificult to accept anybody suggesting Earth as Gangadhara Shiva, that is 'the holder of the River Ganga', or Chandrashekhara that is, 'the receipient of moonrays', etc. of the 'Hindu Mythology'. Thus, worship of Shiva in the form of Jyotirlingas, including Mahakala Jyotir Linga as the protector of the Universe was in the past also found readily acceptable by the common man.

And, call it the 'characteristic property of time', the funny thing is that everything coming from the 'west' today, that is, an 'imported item', is heartily accepted despite sometimes feeling cheated. For example, a stranger in the local market once complained that he had purchased a bag in the USA and yet its zip went out of order in no time! I couldn't help remark aloud spontaneously, in a lighter vein, that maybe it was originally imported from India!

In the present it has been reported by anthropologists that the present day Homo sapiens all over the world have their common root in the African continent.

As per Hindu mythological stories, however, it is indicated that it might be true that ‘life’, absolutely originally, might have started from ‘India’ from Kashi that is known as Varanasi today, which the Hindu Mythological Stories indicate as the original abode of Shiva where Jyotirlinga Vishwanath representing the Lord of the World is located, and it happens to be near the Longitude that is reckoned in thepresent related with the Indian Standard Time (IST).

Shiva’s abode is however indicated to be shifting from time to time and to have moved to the Mount Kailash after His marriage with Parvati, which is perhaps symbolically indicated through the northernmost of the Jyotirlingas, Kedarnath in Uttaranchal, an ancient shrine in the snow-clad Himalayas.

And, also the legends relate Shiva with Jyotirlinga Mahakal, as the controller of time for ‘India’ at the middle stage related with Krishna of Dwaperyuga when maximum human efficiency believably is 50 % of the 100 % potential achievable in Satyuga.

It is known that earth passes through cycles of freezing and thawing. In the Hindu Mythological stories, it is indicated that at the end of Brahma’s day of over 4 billion years His night follows when life forms are frozen, to restart from that stage when another day in the life of Brahma starts again. And. the cycle of appearance and dissolution of life keeps on repeating at various intervals, and also whenever there is need felt for mass scale dissolution, 'pralaya', including at the end of different Yugas.

Kavitha, I give below anothr reaction to an article in my newspaperWhy is India’s Picasso staying away? Question posed by Shri Shashi Tharoor (STOI) is a good one - reply to which should perhaps be attempted by all ‘scientists’.

Someone who is really interested - and not writing only for ‘time-pass’ - could perhaps find the answer even in the question: Why (like stars in the sky or space) are raw apples (perhaps unaware of the 'root cause', the seeds, each one of them holds within) dangle from the tree – and return best to earth, that too only near to its roots, ‘naturally’ when they are ‘mature’?

Perhaps, that’s why even Lord Rama, a ‘Hindu by birth’, had to spend 14 years in exile before he could become eligible to ‘occupy the throne of Ayodhya’, educated as a ‘Hindu by thought’! And MF Hussain, believably a ‘Hindu’, can’t stand exile for a few years! Perhaps it is repetition of His Story that is history, and it’s a fact that even historians need to recall how a lover of ‘India’, Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), spent his last five years in exile in Rangoon, his mortal form pining to return to his 'roots'.

Wiser ancient ‘Hindus’ called man Apsmara Purush, the ‘forgetful man’ who is unable to recall his remote past, and depicted him lying prone under the foot of Bhootnath/ Natraj Shiva. And, Mahabharat, the word itself communicated the whole world to be the 'real India'!

Any numbers of words are insufficient to express a realization. Maybe the writer could attempt a few words to make one realize the difference between the sweetness of, say, a banana and a mango without oneself needing personally to experience it…

The Hindu mythological story, of Lord Vishnu separating with His ‘beautiful wheel shaped weapon’ or ‘sudershan chakra’ the head of demon Rahu from his lower body, Ketu, thus rendering immortality to Rahu’s head, in the present day terminology could perhaps be seen in the realization of independent existence of Ultra-violet rays and the Infra-red rays in the environment of earth at the two opposite ends of the spectrum, although apparently only violet and red colours become visible to the naked eye.

These two powerful energy forms could perhaps be realized as the destructive or creative forces associated with sunlight that enters planet earth’s atmosphere during the day. In the stories the white sunlight and these energy forms are apparently depicted through the characters of ‘Suryavanshi kings’/ Pandavas and their two numbers advisors, both in Tretayug as well as Dwaperyuga, conveying these characters to be related with energy/ colour associated with selected members of our solar system - each as controller of one of the eight directions that define the space/ globe other than the two Poles.

Krishna, the reincarnation of Vishnu, and literally meaning ‘Black’, is shown associated with both blue as well as yellow colours and is therefore called ‘Peetamber’ as well as ‘Neelamber’ – the two colours that are seen in the visible spectrum on either side of the green colour, that is Hari (Vishnu) or Hara (Shiva) in Hindi. However, He is indicated associated with the third also, i.e., Red colour also in the story related with red tongue of Ma Kali, meaning Black/ Sati the original consort of Shiva who resides in the ‘His heart’ that is the core of earth!

Yellow and Blue colours are also seen related with Parvati, the second wife of Shiva, and His favourite son Kartikeya respectively, while Ganesha is indicated as the favourite son of Parvati because he had blessings of both Mothers Kali & Gouri and is shown associated with Orange colour that is obtained by combining Red and Yellow!

It is also seen that the molten magma from a volcano in appearance is red at the crater. But it turns black when it cools down when it comes in contact with air/ water on the surface of earth that is associated with green colour.

In another story, Brama is depicted as evolved from Vishnu’s navel and seated on a lotus flower while a demon evolved one each from Vishnu’s ears that generated panic in Brahma’s heart, lest these two eat him up, till Vishnu, although in super conscious state and yet appears dormant to the uninitiated, grabbed them with His hands!

These and many similar stories thus convey the ‘satva’ or essence of creation of our solar system in an interesting story form for the benefit of ‘common man’.

There is another very popular belief that man is a model of the universe, also expressed in the saying, “Gagar mein sagar,” to the effect that the phenomenon is similar to containing the (essence of the whole) seawater inside a pitcher.

Once man apparently progressed in the use of man-made tools, just as earthen pitchers are believed to be one of the early creations of believably the most intelligent animal life, i.e., one of the early structures made by man for storing available surplus potable life-giving water at a certain point of time and space for use later, in ‘future’, by the concerned, similarly man was realized by analogy - by some intelligent humans called Yogis - to be a storehouse of surplus energy for use by ‘life forms’ superior to man according to their need as long as the ‘pitchers’ in animal forms lasted.

This phenomenon even today gets reflected in the crematoria when a pitcher containing water is emptied through a hole around the pyre of the mortal remains of a ‘Hindu’ - prior to lighting it - and then broken into pieces by allowing it to drop on to the ground!

There is also a Christian saying, “Earth to earth and ashes to ashes,” which indicates human form also to be made of the earth, or understood as a model of Earth, which itself also believably is a model of the Creator or ‘image of God’ like humans.

The above thought is reflected in the reported exclamation by certain sages, to the effect, “I am Shiva and so you too are,” on realization of the ‘Truth’ of “Satyam Shivam Sunderam” that is ‘Shiva is the truth and he alone is beautiful’. Thus Shiva that is Earth came to be represented as the centre of the universe by the ancient ‘Hindu’ astronomers also.

However, Earth was also realized as the true physical form or image of the immortal Formless Creator or ‘Paramatma’ the Supreme Soul, and each and every other physical form in the entire apparent universe to be His Own image or reflection as in a ‘magical mirror’, and hence the concept of ‘Maya’ that is illusion communicated through ‘Jagat mithya’ or the earth ‘a market where lies only are sold’, although apparently all forms have a logic or their own apparent ‘Truth’, which was expressed as being related with the essences of the members of the solar system.

Planet Saturn that has beautiful rings was apparently believed to represent the formless Vishnu, the ‘sudershan-chakra-dhari’ the ‘holder of beautiful wheel’ shaped weapon and planet Jupiter as Vishnu’s reincarnation in Dwaperyuga, that is 'Krishna', for it also has similar, though smaller, rings. And, the story of churning of the ‘Milky ocean’ indicates Jupiter (perhaps associated with pure heat energy, Infra-red rays that is exchanged between different galaxies) as the supervisor overlooking the churning, and Earth, associated with Green colour, that results from the combination of blue and yellow colours, as Krishna’s supreme form as it is indirectly indicated in the Gita as we have seen earlier elsewhere also.

The ‘destructive’ red colour is believably suppressed to a certain extent with the birth of ‘Ganesha’ represented by orange colour that is obtained by the yoga or combination of yellow and red.

Thus in the second round, that is entry into ‘sanyas’ or retired life, believably over 56 to 58 years of age, that is eight sub-cycles of 7 years each, these five essential colours indicated above, or gemstones corresponding to the cool blue (representing the right eye), the hot yellow (representing the left eye) and the hot orange representing the ‘third-eye’, and Green colour at the tip of the nose, as hinted in Krishna’s advice to Arjuna, together with that associated with Infra-red, i.e., ‘Cat’s eye’ as the base are apparently needed to reinforce the instrument in human form for improved eficiency in the present, as per my present research and experience of their application on photo of the retired individual concerned.

To round up, the word ‘Mahakal’ conveys the lengthening of ‘Time’ by the personified Formless Creator who itself is related with zero time and space and therefore believably exists in some immortal energy form called ‘Supreme soul’.

It is believed to have appeared on its own and therefore called ‘Swayambhu’ or in short ‘Shambhu', 'Mahadeva’ or 'Mahesha' the ‘perfect’ or an all rounder having Supreme knowledge and capabilities.

Although man was believably its own reflection - just as other apparent physical forms too were - for some purpose apparently known to it alone, it created a grand variety of forms. And, this was believably executed on the same basic principles applied both to the non-living as well as life forms with Earth representing its true image while other seven selected members of our Solar System as Earth’s inferior images, and whose ‘essences’ also went into the formation of human structure too to reflect the apparent hierarchy in ‘Nature’, helped in distribution of energy/ information related to creation at different levels within the animal/ human form that helped in retrieving the information only to the extent to which it reached the top of head where brain is located.

Therefore, realization of the above as a part of a grand design, certain Yogis or ‘ancient scientists’ apparently withdrew to isolated locations to avoid interference with other humans and attempted to reach the Creator by achieving a thoughtless or zero state. Or, without needing to run away from their day-to-day responsibilities, some looked for signs of locked up energy in natural objects at different locations where ‘miracles’ reportedly happened, believing that as an indication of the presence of some ‘good’ and ‘elevated soul’ and performed prayers in that region to gain additional energy to elevate their own souls just as ‘satsang’ or gathering of all ‘good souls’, say during Kumbha mela at holy places, believably helps in purification of individual souls.

Brahmins are those who understand and experience "Brahman",not those who wear a sacred thread.This is the first mistake everyone makes.Birth and family are not limitations to reach Brahman.Only sloth is.

The Kumbh Mela derives its name from the immortalizing pot of nectar described in India's ancient scriptures. Kumbh in the Sanskrit language means "Pot", "Pitcher", "Jar" or "urn" and Mela means "Festival".